Charlie Soong

Newspaper clipping of studio portrait of Charlie Soong.
Soong (1863?-1918), who was born in China, set sail for Boston, MA, with his uncle in the Spring of 1878. Unsatisfied with his life as a salesman in his uncle's shop, Charlie escaped Boston as a stowaway aboard a ship called the "Albert Gallatin" and eventually made his way to Wilmington, NC. Discovered by Colonel Roger Moore, Charlie was introduced to the Right Reverend Thomas Page Ricaud of the Fifth Street Methodist Church. The church helped to foster the young man and funded his education at both Trinity College and Vanderbilt University. He was ordained to Christian ministry in 1885 and assigned to the mission field in China.
During the course of his career in China, Charlie emerged as a successful publisher, industrialist, and a prominent minister of a leading church. He became a financial leader of the Xinhai Revolution when China became a republic. Charlie had three sons and three daughters, all of whom went on to become extremely successful, including a daughter who married General Chiang-Kai-sek, president of the Republic of China.